The total area of these nine blocks is 18,996 square kilometers, an area equivalent to half of the Netherlands, 12 times the size of London or 13 times the size of Mexico City.

Shell has been in Mexico since 1954 and has a large portfolio of businesses that includes retail, trading, petrochemicals, lubricants, import and sales of LNG. The results of the deep-water bid round further fortify Shell's presence in this key market after having established its first retail station in the country last September.

This year, Shell celebrates 40-years of deep-water operations in the US Gulf of Mexico, where it pioneered deep-water exploration and production. World-wide, Shell deep-water production is progressing to greater than 900-thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020, from already discovered, established areas in the US Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, and Malaysia.